What Does the U.S. Even Make, Anymore? This Website Shows You

As an American, I have this fear that it doesn't matter what we do and that U.S. manufacturing is going the way of the dodo. I have this fear that every success story we read about someone manufacturing in America and making a profit is just a drop in the bucket, and that creating hundreds of manufacturing jobs won't help because we need millions of manufacturing jobs. But until someone shows me that statistic, I'll hold out a little hope.

Two people who not only share that hope but are passionate about it are Eric Brian Smith and Mary Tayloe Yang, the creatives and founders behind Palo Alto's XY3D animation firm. In their spare time they've put together a website, US Groove, that presents U.S.-made goods in a blog format. Divided by category, the site lists furniture, electronics, tools, automotive products, bags, clothing, jewelry and more.

"It's a myth that outsourcing is the only way to make a profit," says Smith. "The only things that tend to make financial sense importing are products with billions of interconnected parts."

"Once you know what the U.S. is good at making competitively," adds Yang, "it becomes easier to shop American and help pull the U.S. economy back together and put it back into the groove."

5 Comments

It only takes one person to enact the beginning of change, so don't be discouraged. Our company provides 100% made in USA dorm and home bedding and accessories and we are finding great early support. We love the opportunities that are presented when 2 million freshmen will head off to college and live in dorms next fall. Every one of them needs bedding and accessories. Why not buy American Made? Think what 2 million bedding sets - American Made, not made in China - could do for the textile industry!

I've definitely noticed a trend amongst Americans to prefer American-made products. That's why you see things like the XOXO Festival and Unique LA take off. Thanks for sharing another org that's interested in pushing this forward!

Informative article with interesting views by the author. Readers may also be interested in this annual report on manufacturing in the US with related information you may find useful @ http://bit.ly/IzVhuU

The US will be just fine in the manufacturing sector as soon as unions go away. They did a brilliant job of bankrupting Detroit insofar as they can't even afford to keep the lights on the abandoned streets anymore.

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